Tangled Up
by AndreaO22
Summary: Bella has just left her bullied days behind on the last day of high school. She comes home to find the people that she trusted the most standing over the dead body of her mother. Bella has to discover her family's secret, and catch and kill the people trying to track her down. Can Edward help her, or will their love kill them both?


**Okay, so I'm trying out a new story. What I Dream For, and A Starbucks Jerk will still update regularly, but I just want to see if anyone likes this.**

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**Chapter One**

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Running through a forest infested with all types of bugs, animals, and holy shit! I think I just saw a deer! As I was saying, this is not how I envisioned the last day of my senior year of high school. I'm slightly out of breath, sweat clinging to my bag, and I desperately need water. Sam and Embry have been chasing me for ten minutes now, but come on! I'm not that athletic and I haven't worked out in weeks.

"This ends now Bella!" I hear Sam's furious call behind me. Making a sharp left, I smack face first into a tree. With no time to properly check over my possible injury, I raise myself quickly off of the tree, and continue sprinting.

"Come back here Bella!" Embry is now the voice of reason, "We can explain!"

It's so funny how you think you know people, and then one day you walk in on them standing over the dead body of your mother. Sam and Embry are the best friends of my brother Jake, who left for college two years ago. You could say they took me under their wing, but they did kill my mother, so it doesn't sound that good now. The day started off so well, I'd just gotten through the most painful, yet best day of my short life. Sure I'd been slammed into my locker a couple of times, and had my lunch thrown on me, but I was so fucking happy to be getting out of there.

Forks High School held some of the most terrible memories for me. My confidence had been beaten down throughout every class. I have zero to no self-esteem, and the only friend I had, my only confidante, was my widowed mother Renee. My father Charlie died when I was seven, and Jake was ten. Jake took it pretty hard, but me, I saw it.

My mother was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, and Jake was in his room sleeping. I was outside in what my dad liked to call "A Bella Mood" when my dad's cruiser pulled up down the street. He swerved into a trash can, and then stumbled out of the car. He swayed on his feet, but used the car to balance himself. Out of the blue, to men dressed in the most expensive suits I'd ever seen pulled up right next to his car. In a matter of minutes, they'd grabbed my dead and thrown him onto the ground. Their fists connected with his face too many times for me to remember.

When they'd decided he'd had enough, they let him go. He fell to the grown miserably, his eyes closed, his shirt stained with blood. The greasiest of the men, a dirty blonde with long hair, looked right at me, and winked. I was so shaken up by the time they'd retreated to their car. I stayed in my place on the porch steps, just staring at the still body of my father, not one tear shed. Something had changed in me that day. Something clicked in me.

I may have been seven, but I was so much older than I seemed. I'd experienced violence, and death right before my eyes, and I couldn't understand why. A couple of weeks after that, Jake had begun getting bullied at school. My father's death had caused our family name to become tainted. We'd become true Swans'. We'd become the victim's.

Now as I run through the forest, with trees and rocks passing by me, my life flashes by in a blur. I can no longer comprehend what is real and what is not. Why did Jake really leave? Why was my father killed? Fuck that, why was my innocent mother killed? She'd never done one bad thing in her life. She'd always give to any charity, and she'd even donate to my school. Knowing the torture I went through there, but she was determined that a good education would make things better.

I can't even remember our last conversation, or the last thing I'd given her to show my appreciation. But I know I'll always remember this day. The day I finally realized that not everyone can be trusted. Even my supposed best friend Angela, who laughed at me when a full Coke can was chucked at my head. Popularity definitely does change people.

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I make another turn and before I can plant my feet firmly on the ground, I can feel myself falling. Crashing to what seems like my death. As I roll down the steep hill, leaves, small rocks, and any other thing you wouldn't want on you, rockets on to me. I tumble-down a never-ending slope, until finally, I stop. The splash is deafening as I become immersed in water. The water fills my ears, and my nose, and I'm finding it hard to keep on fighting.

"There she is! Go get that bitch!" Sam shouts from somewhere up above me. It's useless, I think I should just quit. What is there to live for anyway? My mother's voice flashes in my ears, in my mind, "_If you aren't living for yourself, who are you living for Bella? You can't always depend on me, I won't always be there. There are so many things I wish I could tell you, and one day I will. But sweetie, you have to live for you. Many things in your life will come in go, but you have to keep going for yourself"._

_"Keep going"._

_"Bella!"_

I am quickly becoming submerged by the water. Blackness consumes me and nothing else matters.

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I open my eyes, shocked that I still can. I should be six feet under right now, but I don't see my father or my mother. I don't see that stairway of heaven guiding me up above. I see darkness, and I feel pain. I glance around me into the darkness, and see nothing but trees. No water, no Sam, and no Embry. I am outside, still in the forest, but I am alone. I slowly sit up, a slight pain in my back.

"Why?!" I scream out into the night, "Why me? Why am I still here?" I crouch down, hugging my knees to my chest and sob. I haven't cried this hard since…well, ever. I hear a rustle in the distance; leaves are blowing, swirling around me, but this one sound. This one crackle has me on my feet. Running despite the pain, looking for a light. Any light that tells me that I am not alone. An owl sounds from a nearby tree, and I scream. I run and I scream. I'm so lost, and so confused. And then I'm falling again. Plummeting to what could be my death, or my savior. Rolling down a hill to a light. I hop up onto my feet and run as fast as I can towards that light until I smack into something. Hard.

Before I am completely consumed in the blackness yet again, I can feel myself being dragged, but I have no energy to stop it. I have no energy to fight and try to get away. I have no energy to open my eyes and scream. So I keep them closed, and let this stranger carry me where he may.


End file.
